Grey Cup centenary: Field-good tale

Toronto Argonauts' Walter Spencer video records his teammates during practice Saturday in Toronto. The Argos will face the Calgary Stampeders in the 100th CFL Grey Cup on Sunday. (SEAN KILPATRICK / The Canadian Press)

IN most sports finals, fans will cheer on their team until they’re hoarse. But only in the CFL do fans screech until their horse ... is allowed into the hotel.

Calgary Stampeders supporters have been putting their stamp on Canadian football folklore in this particular manner since 1948, when they first trampled through the Royal York lobby. This year, the tony Toronto hotel, after some initial resistance, caved again to the Western horse and hordes — in fine tradition.

Nothing is more fitting this year than to honour the strange customs that have flourished in the grand tradition of the Grey Cup. The game is 100 years young, and today’s clash between the upstart Stampeders and the Toronto Argonauts, who are playing on home turf, may yet add more spice to the quirky and quintessentially Canadian curiosity that is the Grey Cup.

For NFL fans, many of whom are Canadian, three-down football might seem quaint. But it takes a backseat to no one entertainment-wise. The greatest CFL tradition is the spectacle itself: games that often have the advantage of being high-scoring and nail-bitingly close.

Even the low-scorers tend to be high-drama. Argos fans, including Stephen Harper who has since switched his allegiance to Calgary, still vividly remember how hard they took the Fum-Bowl in 1971, when the Argos running back coughed up the ball and a last chance at victory over Calgary on a rain-soaked field.

Over the long and storied history of the Grey Cup, athletes have not always been the only actors in the arena. What would Canadiana be without some serious weather? The Mud Bowl of 1950, the Fog Bowl of 1962 — the fourth quarter had to be finished the next day — and the Snow Bowl of 1996 are the stuff of legend.

Nor are the elements the only element of surprise in Grey Cup lore. In 1957, Ray (Bibbles) Bawel (pronouced Bobble) of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats was rocketing down the sideline towards the end zone when a spectator stuck out his foot and tripped him. It took 20 years for the culprit to come forward publicly. The Tripper’s true identity was another jaw-dropper. The scofflaw that day turned out to be a prominent lawyer who later became a judge.

In the end, the Grey Cup has endured because it has endeared itself to Canadians. It’s an opportunity to play out our stories, not the least of which is the abiding East-West rivalry, without lingering animosity. It’s a forum where crazy Quebecers, wacky Westerners and off-the-wall Ontarians are equally at home.

Come to think of it, it’s a lot like Confederation. We’re still getting a kick out of that oddball arrangement 145 years later.